


i miss you like i missed rain

by crisbarakart



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 7th wheel lance, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Male Character, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Cosmo - Freeform, Cuba, Cuban Lance, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Drunk Keith (Voltron), Drunk Lance (Voltron), Drunk flirting, Earth, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff, Flustered Keith (Voltron), Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay, Gay Panic, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Fluff, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Speaks Spanish, Lance is sad, Lance's family - Freeform, M/M, Outer Space, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Socially Awkward Keith (Voltron), Space Mall, Space Wolf - Freeform, Spanish Lance (Voltron), They are so in love, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Truth or Dare, Varadero, Yorak, adam didnt die here, but watch me fuck up the cuban dialect cause im from spain and not cuba nor south america, cheasy, drunk voltron, i know its a regular cow but space cow sounded cool, in this house we support LIVING gays, kaltenecker - Freeform, keith flirting with lance, keith is ready to kick butts for lance, klance, klance is so in love, klance is so whipped, klance legendary space gays, lance finally accepts he likes dick, lance finally gets the apology he deserves, lance flirting with keith, lance puts the bi in bitch, lance speaking in spanish bc im spanish and its so convinient when lance also speaks spanish, my baby deserves better, pizza beach party, space cow, spanish lance, team voltron coming back to earth, the beach ep we all deserved, yorance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-09 09:34:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15264588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crisbarakart/pseuds/crisbarakart
Summary: Now they got to come back home, to their families, and it was all Lance had wanted in months. So, if this was all he had wanted, why did he feel so empty and lonely? Would a pizza beach party help make things better?





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm sooooo obsessed with voltron (and klance) lately so it was about time i wrote something about these two idiots <3
> 
> !! this has spoilers so if you haven't watched till season 6 you're gonna get spoiled !!

He mixed the content of his coffee distractedly, not really giving it attention, rather, his thoughts were somewhere else. It had been almost a month since they came back to Earth. They had all decided to take a rest, to split ways for a while so they could be with their families before going back to the mission. At first, when Allura suggested the idea, Lance was overly excited, the happiest he’d been in months –because with all of the problems that Lotor had brought them, those months hadn’t been easy. And he had been feeling terribly alone and excluded too. He needed some time back with his family, where he could feel loved. Somewhere where he could enjoy some home-cooked meals instead of those alien foods that tasted weird and just _bad_ –probably because Coran wasn’t much of a cooker either–, and also sleep on a comfy familiar bed were the possibility of having to wake up in the middle of the night because of a Galra attack was much much much lower.

Now, however, it didn’t feel so good. It was almost like when one was in the middle of the semester, with tones of projects and approaching exams, but then it all ended and one was left with too much free time; so much that it even became a problem. Lance had spent so much time with Team Voltron that now it felt as if he was far away from home, from were he truly belonged –even if he was sitting, in that precise moment, in the kitchen of his house, surrounded by all of his family.

“Lance, sweetie, are you okay?” His mother’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts and back to the kitchen table, where they were all having breakfast.

He instantly stopped mixing his coffee, seeing the look his mother, as well as the other members of his family, were giving him. He still remembered the commotion that had taken place in that house when he showed up, out of nowhere, weeks ago. They all had seen the news, about the missing Garrison students. They all had assumed that he was gone forever, lost in space or even dead. But then Lance suddenly appeared, as if he was just coming home for Christmas, and they were all just so glad that he was okay. They had lots of questions about what happened, and Lance made his best effort to answer them all clearly, telling his family all about his adventure, the intergalactic war, about the Lions, about Voltron, and they had all listened closely to everything.

“Yeah… Yeah, I’m fine.” He answered, giving them all a reassuring smile. “Just half-asleep.”

His mother nodded, giving him one last look at him and his coffee, and they all went back to whatever conversation they were having, one he had completely missed because of spacing out, something about one of Veronica’s friends, it seemed. He was just glad to see his mother calmer now, weeks ago she seemed constantly on edge, as if she feared he was going to disappear without notice again.

He sipped on his coffee, enjoying the warmth. It was the beginnings of October and the weather was getting cold, so a hot coffee and an over-sized sweater felt perfect. It had also been ages since he drank coffee, so you could say that lately he had pretty much become a coffee addict, one that couldn’t function without his morning coffee.

When he was done eating breakfast, he excused himself and went upstairs, to his old bedroom. He still hadn’t got used to it, sometimes he woke up and it took him some time to realize where he was. Not only hadn’t he been there for the time he spent in outer space, but also when he was living at the Garrison. Now it felt kind of weird to have posters of one of his teammates hanging on the wall.

He sat on his bed and cheeked his phone, to see if he had any new messages. When they came to Earth, Shiro had suggested to write down everyone’s phone numbers and have them on their phones –now that they were able to have phones again, phones that actually worked on that planet–, just in case an emergency came. The Galra traced Krolia in the past, they could probably trace them all too.

No new messages.

He knew that it was a good sign, it meant that everything was fine and they could get to spend more time with their families in peace, to not have to fight aliens for a change; yet he wished they would all not only restrict the text messages to emergencies. Lance really wished they would text. He wanted to talk with them. But he probably cared too much, he always cared too much. It always felt as if he gave so much of him to people and others didn’t give as much back. He always felt replaceable and not important enough. He probably was. The last months he had spent on Team Voltron had probed so. Hunk and Pidge were always together, with all their engineering stuff and their inside jokes –that, sometimes, Lance was a target of– and it honestly made him feel kind of shitty, considering they were all in the same team when they were at the Garrison. They were supposed to all be best buddies; but he guessed they weren’t. Shiro -well, the fake Shiro- and Coran were about the same, always together. And then there was Allura, who he had such a crush on, who was the first girl he had ever truly been serious about, who he deeply valued and admired –yet she was too preoccupied with Lotor. And then, even though he had sworn to himself that he didn’t care that much about Keith –because sure, they were on much better terms now, they were actually a good team when they worked together– he found himself thinking about him when he was all alone. Because, if Keith had been there, maybe he wouldn’t have felt so alone. If that mullet guy had been there they would have probably been bickering as always, in a way that, by now, it wasn’t harmful at all but more like playful. And when things got tough, Lance knew he could count on Keith just as Keith could count on him. _They were a good team._

But now he was all alone, with his family, and it was all Lance had wanted in months. But then, if this was all he had wanted, why did he feel so empty and lonely? Why couldn’t he shake off the pain in his gut, telling him he wasn’t enough for anyone, not even to himself?

 

~*~

 

Another week had passed by, with no news of his teammates, and that just gave Lance too much time to think. To overthink. Because what if the others had been secretly meeting without him? They probably thought he was so annoying and so it’d be better not to call to hang out. Or what if they left again to outer space to keep fighting the Galra but left him there, finally kicking him out of the team? He probably was too much of a burden for the team and was better off left on Earth having an ordinary life.

Deep down, he wished he could be more honest.

He wished he would stop covering his insecurities with jokes, to stop pretending, because it was also tiring to be constantly putting up this confident front. He wasn’t really like that. He loved to joke, and flirt, and act all goofy; but he wasn’t all the time as confident as he made himself look. He wished someone could see past that.

And maybe, if he was more honest with himself, he could have also seen, accepted, that all that flirting with girls was just an attempt to hide the fact that he was also attracted to guys. That he was just trying to over-compensate. If he kept on flirting with that cute girl on that planet they just saved, he could ignore the fact that the guy at the back was also hot as fuck. More importantly, if he had been more honest, maybe he would have seen that Keith was way more than just a rival to him and that, all this time, he had just been using that as an excuse, a cover up, to hide the fact that, since Garrison, he had had a crush on the mullet guy. And it took him this long to figure it out. He didn’t want to be better than Keith, he wanted to be with Keith, and become a better person with him.

But it didn’t matter, any of that mattered, because it was probably too late by now. Or he never even had a chance. How could someone like Keith want to be with someone like Lance? Someone who had been acting like a jerk towards him since day one. Someone who wasn’t even worthy to be with him, because Keith was just so amazing, while Lance wondered every single day how was he still on Team Voltron, how hadn’t the rest kicked him out and sent him home yet.

Well, he was at home now, and that was probably why no one had contacted him so far.

They wouldn’t.

He woke up on his bed, with the same pain in his stomach as every other morning, dreading not being in the Castle of Lions, where he would wake up and go downstairs, to have that filthy green food that, after a while, wasn’t so bad, where he would tease Keith and—.

Wait. He just heard Keith’s voice.

He shot up, siting on his bed and looking at his bedroom. No way, Lance was at home, all the way to Varadero; there was no way Keith, of all people, was there. When they all parted ways, Keith had said he and his mom would go back to Texas. He fixed his eyes in one of Shiro’s posters, putting all his attention on trying to listen on what was going on downstairs. And then he heard it again. Keith’s voice.

He quickly got up, practically running downstairs, to the kitchen, where the voice was coming from, thinking that he was probably just imagining things. Maybe he just missed him so much, now that he had had so much time for himself to actually come to terms with the fact that he had feelings for Keith, that he had mistaken one of his siblings’ voices with Keith’s. Because he could maybe think of Hunk or Shiro or even Allura coming to visit him, make sure he was okay, but Keith? It didn’t make sense.

He got to the kitchen, stopping right next to the door and he peeped out the doorway. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Right there, siting in one of the kitchen chairs, Lance’s kitchen chair, to be more precise, was Keith, cup of coffee on his hands and talking with his mom. For a moment, he thought he’d cry. It had been so long, Lance had been feeling so lonely, that it almost felt like a dream to have Keith, of all people, siting on his kitchen chair. Keith was giving Lance his back, and Lance couldn’t help but to stare, taking advantage of how he couldn’t see him, of how none of them had taken notice of him. His eyes took in Keith’s stupid mullet, that one that was even stupider when he had it in a ponytail, just like it was in that moment, his muscular arms, his strong back, his pale skin.

“I’m sure he’ll wake up anytime soon.” Lance’s mom assured Keith, in her thick Spanish accent, giving him one of her sweet smiles. “I’m just so glad you came, I was even considering stealing Lance’s phone and calling one of you to come and stop my son from sulking.”

So, Keith really came here on his own. Lance couldn’t get his head around that. Why would he come here? Wasn’t he bonding with his cool alien mom? He couldn’t have ditched Krolia to come visit Lance.

“Sounds like Lance.” Keith laughed, and, despise how they were constantly fighting and teasing each other, Keith’s answer didn’t sound malicious, or even teasing, more like he sounded concerned. Was Keith worried about him?

“You seem to care a lot about him.” His mom said, with the same smile, one that didn’t seem to be leaving her face anytime soon.

At that comment, he saw Keith tense.

“Well… Yeah, he’s one of my teammates.” He sounded… nervous?

Lance saw her mother rise her head, staring right at him with a smile, one that Lance couldn’t quite decipher, yet he decided to take that as a sign to stop hiding behind the doorway and actually make an act of presence already.

He cleared his throat awkwardly, without really knowing what to say, how to greet Keith, the guy he liked, that had casually appeared on his house overnight.  
“Keith?”

Keith turned around, looking almost as panicked as Lance, and, for a moment there, they just stared at each other. It felt as if neither of them knew what to do or say.

“Hey, Lance.” Keith finally said, giving him a small smile.

Her mom, behind the two guys, gave them a last smile and turned back to do the dishes that were pilling in the sink from the night before, due to all of them being too lazy or too tired to do them at night. Yet, after noticing them both just standing there, without speaking a word, she decided to intervene again, to try to help them out a bit.

“Lance, honey, why don’t you guys go to your room? I’ll bring you some breakfast.”

Lance shifted uncomfortably, nervous, but ended up agreeing, leading Keith to his room.

“Sorry for the mess, I didn’t expect you here and, also, your stupid voice woke me up so I couldn’t even do the bed.” Lance said, deciding to go on with their usual bickering, to make things less awkward. Still, he wanted to punch himself, because there he was again treating his crush like shit when Keith made the effort to come all the way to freaking Cuba.

But, despise what Lance was expecting, Keith didn’t return his bickering. Instead, he looked at him, not even sparing a glance at the messy room, with a sad, compassionate expression. And it completely took Lance by surprise.

“It’s okay, it doesn’t matter.” Keith answered, giving him a small smile. “I came to see you, not your room. Nice Shiro posters, though.”

Lance blushed, he had totally forgot about the posters and how Keith and Shiro were basically best friends, brothers. Still, he brushed it off, deciding it was way more important the way Keith was being so serious about this all and how he had just admitted coming there to see him.

Seeing that Lance didn’t look like he was going to speak any time soon, Keith continued. “How are you, Lance?”

Lance paused for a moment, taken aback, surprised. It felt as if it had been so long since someone had asked him that, since someone really cared about him and his well-being. Now he just didn’t know how to react, because he wasn’t expecting that. He specially wasn’t expecting that from Keith. Although, if Lance really thought about it, when things got really dark inside of his head, it was usually Keith who took him out of that dark place. Even if they argued, even if Lance insisted on making them rivals, they understood how the other worked pretty well.

Just one more reason as to why these past months without Keith being on the team had been pretty shitty.

“I’m… I’m fine.” Lance lied.

It was just all too much, he felt like if he started to point out everything that was wrong, they would be there for a little too long.

Keith looked straight at him, with a look on his eyes that clearly expressed how he didn’t buy it, almost as if just by looking at him he could see through all of his lies. Then again, Lance was pretty transparent with his emotions, he was always so loud, so when he wasn’t being the annoying goofball he always was it was probably plain obvious he wasn’t doing well.

“I know you’re not, Lance. I can’t tell just by looking at you. I could tell as soon as I stepped on the Castle of Lions when I came back.” Keith stated.

He regretted not having said anything before, because he had noticed the changes in Lance’s attitude. He wanted to blame it all on how things where hectic with the battle against Lotor and the Galra, but he also knew he had had time to approach Lance when they were on their journey back to Earth, or before they parted ways, or he could’ve even texted him. But he didn’t. He was always so shy and awkward when it came to social interactions and personal relationships. He was hoping that Lance would come to him, tell him what was wrong and maybe ask for his opinion on the matter, like it had happened before; but Lance didn’t do it.

“It’s just… do I really belong on Team Voltron? It doesn’t feel like I do.” Lance blurted out, and Keith wanted to both hit and hug Lance, because it was something they had already talked about, but it still seemed to make Lance insecure.

Of course Lance belonged to Voltron, without him Voltron would be boring, lifeless. Lance always knew how to cheer up everyone, even in the worse situations. What the hell happened in the Castle, when he wasn’t there, to get Lance so down? Maybe Lance had had some kind of dispute with someone of the team.

“Of course you—.”

“And then,” Lance interrupted. “There’s this whole thing that’s like… driving me crazy, I can’t seem to think about anything else, everything reminds me of yo—.”

Keith stared blankly at him, confused, not understanding what was Lance talking about. He was about to ask him, when Lance’s bedroom door opened and his mom came in with a tray of food. A whole plate of pancakes, two coffee mugs and even some eggs and bacon. Keith’s mouth watered, he had come here so early he didn’t even eat breakfast. The two boys quickly thanked the woman before watching her leave, leaving them to go back to their conversation.

After his mom left, Lance quickly grabbed one of the pancakes, starting to eat. It seemed as if he was hoping the past conversation would be left forgotten because of the appearance of a delicious breakfast, but Keith was determined to find out what was bothering Lance so much.

“What's… that thing that’s driving you crazy?” He cautiously asked, after taking a sip of one of the coffee mugs.

Lance also took his own mug, taking a sip, as if to prolong the silence, to think out well his next words. Yet, at the end, he just looked away.

“I-It’s nothing.” He ended up saying.

Lance couldn’t say it, he couldn’t go there and say 'Oh, yeah, I’m going crazy because each day it seems more and more obvious that I have a crush on you, even though I wasn’t even really aware of liking guys too'. He couldn’t say that to Keith. What if he was freaked out? What if he was homophobic and saying something like that just threw the friendship they so hard worked on to the trash? Besides, even if Keith wasn’t against the LGBT+, or even was a part of it, for that matter, he would never like him back. There was no way Keith liked Lance.

Keith sighed, clearly disappointed with the fact that Lance didn’t seem to trust him enough to tell him what was wrong, even though he came all the way to Cuba just to see him and see if he was doing fine. Then again, it’s not as if they had such a deep bound for Keith to expect him to blindly trust him and tell him everything, they didn’t even get on well at first, they just argued all the time, and then, when things were starting to change, Keith went away with the Blades of Marmora.

“Fine.” He answered, sounding a bit to harsh.

They fell into a sort of uncomfortable silence, just eating the breakfast Lance’s mom had brought them. Keith sighed again, getting increasingly uncomfortable and frustrated by how Lance was just shutting him off, and stood up, extending a hand towards Lance, who looked at it confusedly.

“We’re gonna go out for a walk.” Keith declared, as an answer to Lance questioning look.

Lance just took his hand, deciding to follow him because, either way, he was pretty tired of spending his days hiding in his room without nothing to do. It was nice having company for once and something to do.

 

~*~

 

“You brought the Lion?” Lance asked, watching the enormous Black Lion standing right in front of his house. It was such a weird sight, it was clear that thing didn’t belong there and, besides, it was strange itself seeing the Lions here, on Earth, it felt weird to have them anywhere else but space or the Castle of Lions. “I thought Allura and Shiro said to not have them flying around Earth so that we wouldn’t attract any curious eyes.”

Lance’s little brothers, Marco and Luis, were currently playing around the Lion, trying to pass through the barrier that protected the Lion. Lance was sure that, if that barrier didn’t exist, his brothers would’ve climbed onto the Black Lion long ago. When he came home, piloting the Red Lion, they also thought it was so cool and tried the same thing. Her mother ended up insisting on Lance taking them on a quick ride inside the Lion –and he wished he didn’t do it because that ended up being just as how it was with Hunk at the beginning, with everything covered in puke. However, even thought they ended up barfing, his brothers still thought the Lion was so awesome and it took Lance weeks to get their interest on something else. And now they found the Black Lion.

“Yeah, but you live so far away from me, dude. You live on freaking Cuba.” Keith retorted, looking at the kids playing with the Lion, curiously.

Lance nodded, agreeing with that. If he had came here the conventional way, it would’ve taken him way longer and much more money.

“So, what’s the plan?” He asked, still looking at the giant Lion.

“We’re gonna go somewhere nice with my pretty Lion.” Keith explained, starting to walk towards it. “Well, that is if your brothers let us.”

Lance scoffed, getting these two away from the Lion would be hard, he had to hide Red somewhere else so that they couldn’t see it and pester him to take them on another ride. And now they found another one and they’d definitely want to have a ride on it. However, Lance followed Keith, ready to get his brothers away from the Black Lion.

“Luis, Marco, why don’t you go play somewhere else? This is Keith’s Lion and he’s pretty shy, he only lets Keith get in.” Lance told them, trying to sound nice enough to convince them.

Luis and Marco both pouted, clearly not willing to let it go. They looked at Keith and then back at Lance, without saying a word, as if they didn’t trust them, and then turned to the Lion.

“Lion! Don’t be shy! We’re very nice!” Marco said, while Luis, by his side, just said 'yeah' to let his brother know he agreed and reassure the Lion.

Lance sighed. That wasn’t going to be that easy.

“Guys, mom made pancakes.” He tried, to no avail, his brothers were still too preoccupied with the Lion as to care about food; even if their mom made the best pancakes ever.

“Guys. _¡Joder, vayan a jugar a otra parte, un chico guapo me quiere llevar a dar un paseo en su león volador y ustedes no me dejan ir con él!_ ”

Both of them turned around, leaving the Lion forgotten, they looked both surprised and excited at Keith, as if he was the prince of a fairy tale. Lance instantly regretted saying those words, because Keith couldn’t understand Spanish, but his brothers could say something embarrassing to him in English. Also, he probably shouldn't have referred to Keith as 'chico guapo' since that was pretty gay and his family didn't know anything about him liking guys, but it kind of slipped. He just hoped his brothers wouldn't make too much of a deal about it.

“ _Miren, si se van y no le dicen nada a él,_ ” He was careful to not say Keith’s name, so that he wouldn’t know he was talking about him. “ _les prometo que les llevaré en mi león cuando vuelva._ ”

They looked at him questioning, almost as if they didn’t believe him. Lance just wanted them to leave so that he could go somewhere with Keith. God, he was alone with Keith, something that didn’t usually happen and definitely not on such good conditions, without having to fight the Galra and such, and his brothers wouldn’t leave.

“ _¿Seguro? ¿No dijiste que el león rojo se había marchado?_ ”

“ _Haré que vuelva._ ”

Keith looked confused, he couldn’t understand a single word, he had forgotten all of the few Spanish he had learnt in high school, he only recognized a few words and, even then, any of that made sense for him.

“Okay.” Marco said then, grabbing Luis’ hand to take him somewhere else they could play. “Bye, Lance, bye, _chico guapo_.”

Lance blushed like crazy, hopping and praying to all the gods up there that Keith didn’t understand that. Too much for hoping they wouldn't make a big deal of out it. Thankfully, Keith just looked at the kids confusedly and then at Lance, and he just brushed it off when Keith asked what they said.

They finally got on the Black Lion and Keith sat on his seat while Lance stood behind him, resting his weight on the back of the chair.

“So, where are we going?” Lance asked, watching as the Lion took off and started flying into the air.

Black was much slower than Red, Blue was also slower, but now he had got so used to the Red Lion’s speed that it seemed as if any other Lion was slow even though they were all so fast, faster than any Earth spaceship. He could still remember how fast they made it to the Castle of Lions when they found the Blue Lion, it just took them a few minutes.

“I don’t know,” Keith answered. To be completely honest, when he told Lance to go for a ride he hadn’t got anything on his mind, he didn’t think of any particular place, he just wanted to take Lance away somewhere so he could take his mind off all of his worries. “let’s just see where Black here decides to take us. Maybe this space cat knows some cool place.”

Turns out, the Black Lion might understand the paladins better than you would think, since it took them to the Space Mall. Lance’s eyes lighted up and he was practically bouncing when he recognized where they were. Keith didn’t really mind the destination, as long as he was with Lance and he could make him happy, any place was good, but he had to admit that the Space Mall seamed like a nice place to hang out for a few hours and forget about all of their worries and problems.

They left the Black Lion hidden somewhere discrete, where it wouldn’t be that easy to spot and cause them trouble –the trouble being either someone stealing it, as it had happened before, or someone spotting it and bringing unnecessary attention to them; they were the defenders of the universe, after all, yet they also deserved some alone time without having to walk around with their hero façade– and then walked to the entrance of the mall.

“If I had known we would come here I would’ve brought money.” Lance complained, pouting, while checking the insides of his pockets to see if he had any money on him; he could already picture himself fishing coins of the fountain again.

Since Keith said they’d just go for a walk he didn’t bring his phone nor his wallet, he imagined he wouldn’t need them, but what if he now saw some cool video game they didn’t sell on Earth? Maybe he could ask Keith to buy it for him and pay him back later?

“You’re lucky I did bring money.” Keith said, with a smirk. “Come on, let’s go see what they’ve got here, it’s been a while since we last came.”

They both wandered around the mall, looking at the different things the shops sold. There was really so much variety, it was a space mall after all, so you could probably get almost anything there was in the whole universe. Lance took special interest to rare video games one could find there, some that were long sold out on Earth, some that they had never even seen before, Keith also found them interesting, but he was never one to love video games that much. Maybe it had to do with moving from a foster home to another, it didn’t really give him time to get really into them before he was moving somewhere else. They also went to a pet shop, since Lance wanted to see if he could find something cool for Kaltenecker –Keith wondered what exactly could you get for a cow, except food and such, is not as if the cow could go fetch a frisbee– but still found it to be a great opportunity to get something for his space wolf, Yorak.

After hours of walking around moving from a shop to another, having bought two video games for Lance, unbelievably, a frisbee for Kaltenecker, and some random toys for Yorak –all in expense of Keith– they decided to sit in a cafeteria.

“Thank you for paying for my stuff, I promise I’ll give you the money as soon as you drop me back in Varadero.” Lance assured, sipping on his strawberry milkshake.

“Yeah, yeah, no problem.” Keith brushed it off.

In all honesty, even if he had been bickering with Lance as per usual, teasing him about having to pay for his junk, he didn’t mind at all. It felt as if he truly needed that. The Lance he had seen lately wasn’t the Lance Keith knew, he looked so down all of the time, so quiet. The Lance he knew was loud, annoyingly loud, he shined so bright it was impossible to ignore him, and he didn’t know what had happened these past months he had been away, but it felt as if that light had been slowly taken away from him. He was glad that, for a few hours, he had been able to see the bright Lance he loved.

They went silent then, Keith sipped on his own milkshake and watched Lance, he looked as if he was overthinking stuff again. He hit Lance’s knee with his under the table to get his attention.

“Stop putting on that sad face, if I’m paying at least you should enjoy it.”

Lance just tried to put on a smile, but it clearly didn’t fool Keith, it didn’t even fool himself. He just found himself going back to everything that was bothering him, Team Voltron, Keith, having to fight the Galra… That place just reminded him of all of that even more.

“Lance,” Keith spoke again, trying to get his attention. He sounded serious, as if he was done joking and he just wanted to go straight to the issue. “what happened with Team Voltron when I was gone?”

Lance looked directly at Keith at that, surprised that he had gone straight to the point, that he had been able to see exactly what was bothering him.

Lance looked away. “N-Nothing… it was probably my fault anyway.”

_For not being good enough to anyone, not even myself._

Keith kept his eyes on him, serious, he felt bad for seeing Lance like this. He was always so harsh on himself, he wished he could see how much potential he had, how amazing he was it was almost impossible not to like him. In fact, he doubted anything that happened was his fault. It had happened before, when there was too many paladins and not enough Lions, Lance was always quick to assume he was the problem when in most cases he wasn’t.

“I’m pretty sure it wasn’t, Lance.”

Lance looked back at him, then at his milkshake, mixing its contents distractedly.

“It’s just… these past months have been so lonely.” He admitted, finally opening up to Keith. “Allura was always with Lotor, which sucked even more because I liked her, Shiro–well, the fake Shiro– was always working with Coran and you know how Pidge and Hunk are always together with their engineering stuff. I… sort of missed you, man.”

Now it was Keith’s turn to look surprised, he didn’t expect Lance to go and say he missed him, in fact, he thought the team would be much better without him. It would solve the Lions issue and they were better off without him anyway, he wasn’t that close to any of them, he just sort of was there, on Team Voltron, piloting Lions because he had been sucked with the others in this whole adventure. Or so he thought. Now he had Lance admitting he missed him, that he wished he had been on the Team, that he hadn’t left, and it made him feel kind of happy in some way.

“Oh, and Pidge and Hunk just basically teased me the whole time, even if I was completely serious about feeling like shit because of Allura.” Lance went on. “Imagine if I told them that now I like–.”

He cut himself off, (gay) panic all over his face.

“Who?” Keith pushed, intrigued and, honestly, sort of jealous. “Did you meet any hot chick while I was gone?”

He played off cool, saying that question in a teasing tone, but really Keith’s stomach turned. Of course, this was all about a girl. He didn’t even know why he cared. So what if he had had a crush on Lance for months, almost since the beginning of this whole adventure? Lance would never see him that way. He wanted to both cry and break something, because he was so frustrated, he felt so stupid. He came all the way to Lance’s house, uninvited, thinking that maybe he could cheer him up, take him away from all that was bothering him, but Lance probably would have preferred someone else’s visit.

Lance looked away, he stopped mixing the contents of his strawberry milkshake. He looked so nervous suddenly.

“The thing is… it’s not exactly a ' _she_ '.” Lance was nervous, and terrified, he had never admitted that he might actually like guys too to anyone else except himself -and it took a lot to admit it to himself- and there he was now, admitting it to no other than his crush. “It’s… it’s actually a guy… I’m bisexual.”

Keith was surprised. He would’ve never guessed Lance would say something like that, or that the one he liked wasn’t a girl, or that it wasn’t Allura –he was constantly flirting with her and it definitely looked like he liked her–, but a guy. It completely took him by surprise and it also made him… glad. Glad that he also liked guys because, as silly as it sounded, that meant he could maybe have a chance with Lance.

“Oh.” Keith said, without really knowing what else to say. “It’s okay, Lance, there’s nothing bad about liking guys. I mean… I like guys too. I’m… gay, so…”

It came out so awkward, but he couldn’t help it, he was never good with words and feelings and all that stuff, he tended to shut people off, to push them away before they could actually get to him and know him well. It probably had to do with his mom leaving, and his dad dying when he was so young, maybe that was how his brain worked. If I push people away before we actually get close, they won’t have the opportunity to hurt me. So, he never had anyone to have this sort of conversations, even now, that his mom was back, they were still working on bonding and getting used to each other, there was no way Keith was comfortable coming out to her. Yet, still, he wanted to do that for Lance, it looked as if admitting that to himself had taken a lot of internal fighting, as if it was something hard to accept, and Keith wanted to let him know he wasn’t alone, that he understood, and that there was nothing wrong about loving who you loved.

“Really?”

Lance looked at him with wide eyes, he would’ve never suspected Keith was gay. Sure, he had never seen him flirt or show interest on any girl but had he with guys?

“Yeah,” Keith said, a shadow of a blush on his cheeks. “and I actually like a guy too.”

For a moment, they just stared at each other. Deep blue eyes against lilac ones. Both of them talking about each other without really knowing it.

“Who?” Lance ended up whispering, as if talking louder would ruin that moment.

Keith smirked, deciding to mess with Lance a bit. “Might be someone on Team Voltron.”

Lance looked disappointed then, and Keith wondered why.

“Oh,” Lance said. “it’s Shiro, right?”

Keith wanted to both laugh and face-palm at the fact that Lance, the guy he liked, looked so disappointed because he thought he liked his best friend, who could perfectly be his brother, for that matter. And he would never date his brother. At the same time, that reaction was all Keith needed, he was good at reading people, he was observant, and maybe he was wrong but… what if Lance actually liked him back? Keith was impulsive, even Allura said it when they first met, when she assigned the Lions to each one of them. Keith got Red because it needed a paladin who trusted instincts more than logic, and right now, his instincts told him to risk it.

“Oh, my god, Lance. Shiro’s like my brother, of course it’s not him.” He answered, still with a teasing smile on his face. “The guy I like is… much cooler than Shiro, and that seems almost impossible but I promise you he is, even if he doesn’t know it.”

Lance was watching him intensely, with a look on his eyes that Keith couldn’t quite read.

“Wow, sounds like a cool dude.” Lance answered, his voice lacking that characteristic enthusiasm.

Keith nodded, continuing. “He is, even if he sometimes acts like an idiot. He is very reliable too, and funny. Oh, and he has the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.”

Lance now really did look disappointed, more than that, he looked sad. It made Keith feel bad, because he had taken him there to cheer him up and he was getting the opposite playing this game.

“Then maybe you should tell him you like him, he would really be an idiot if he rejected you.” Lance said, his voice sounding so dull.

Lance was looking straight at his milkshake, without the strength to look at Keith when he talked like that about the guy he liked, he felt the tears burn in his eyes. He had finally come to terms with the fact that he liked guys, that he liked Keith, only for Keith to tell him he liked someone else the moment they met again. What did he expect anyway? Of course Keith wouldn’t like such a mess of a person as Lance was, someone who was always treating him like shit.

“Okay,” Keith said then. “Lance, I like you.”

Lance’s head shot up, with shock written all over his face. Keith just smirked.

“W-What?” Lance mumbled, he wasn’t expecting that in the slightest.

“I said I like you, I was talking about you all the time, you idiot.” Keith laughed, finding it both funny and endearing how Lance could be so clueless and dense.

Lance paused for a second, as if he was going back to what Keith had said moments ago in his head, blushing like crazy.

“Wait, for real? You like me too?”

Keith smirked.

“So, I was right. You like me too?”

Lance, realizing he had unintentionally messed up, blushed even harder, making Keith finally laugh.

“S-Shut up, mullet!” Lance protested.

Lance watched Keith laugh, he had such a pretty laugh, he didn’t laugh that much, but when he did, it made his insides melt.

“Yeah, I like you too, Keith.” He smiled, without looking away from the laughing boy.

Keith stopped laughing and they both looked at each other again, this time with the knowledge of both having feelings towards each other.

Lance couldn’t take his eyes off Keith, of his sharp features, the Galra mark on one of his cheeks, his pale skin like porcelain, brutally contrasting with his dark hair, and his eyes. God, his eyes, they had this purple color that was unreal, it was so beautiful it felt like they could suck you in if you stared for too long. Lance wasn’t much less, Keith thought, with that golden skin, kissed by the sun, those deep blue eyes, that reminded him of the ocean on Earth no matter which planet they were at, and that beautiful smile he always had on his face but that, at the same time, right now looked like one Keith had never seen, since it looked like a truly honest and heartfelt one. It made him feel like Lance truly cared, like he wasn’t just one more person to flirt with.

Slowly, they both lent in, until their lips finally met. It was sweet, it tasted like strawberry milkshake, and it made their insides shake. It was all they had wanted for months, yet it took them long enough to realize. Lance hand was on the back of Keith’s neck, pulling him closer, sending shivers down his spine, while Keith's hand rested on Lance's cheek. It was a slow kiss, as if they were taking their sweet time getting to know each other's mouth, and it filled their stomachs with millions of butterflies. Who would've thought they'd end up like this, kissing each other, of all people, in a space mall?

They pulled apart and rested their foreheads against the other’s, looking at each other in the eye again. They didn’t need words.

And, suddenly, all of their problems didn’t seem so hard. Lance wouldn’t be alone because, if he had Keith by his side, that was all he really needed, everything else would come together eventually. Keith made him feel strong and he knew he would be there whenever Lance’s insecurities became too loud. And Keith? Keith was just so happy, he knew it wouldn’t be easy for him to open up to someone, but if it was because of Lance, he was determined to give his best. Because they loved each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the perks of being spanish when you make lance's family speak spanish (although im not cuban / latina, i'm actually from spain so lo siento si he jodido colosalmente el español latino, el español de españa es diferente y'know)
> 
> anyway, hope you liked this thingy if you did leave kudos / comments if you want ^^
> 
> -cris xx


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so i didn't intend to make a part ii of this but idk seems like i can't get enough of this.
> 
> the voltron creators said we're not getting a beach ep? fuck it i'll do it myself. sort of. team voltron needed that well-deserved day off at the beach and to have fun !! 
> 
> i also planned this part ii before the s7 dropped but was too uninspired to actually write it + then i went on holiday with my family so there goes that. i really wanted to write this before s7 dropped but oh well, s7 came to kill us before. SHIRO DIDN'T LOSE HIS FUTURE HUSBAND IN THIS FANFIC (NOR IN ANY OF MY POSSIBLE FUTURE VOLTRON FANFICS) IN THIS HOUSE WE SUPPORT LIVING GAYS. and that's all i'm gonna say about the shiro/adam topic bc i don't wanna get into controversies. BUT KLANCE WILL LIVE ON, LET'S HAVE FAITH ON S8. 
> 
> tbh i've seen so much hate on s7 and i actually enjoyed it???? sure it had some bad things like the adam thing and the allurance moment (not hating on the ship, it's just allura showed interest in lance out of nowhere ?????) but overall i really liked it AND THE KLANCE 
> 
> ps. sorry again for my bad latin-spanish, i'm trying

A few weeks had gone by since Lance had seen Keith. And he missed him. He knew he should be used to Keith not always being present –he got kicked out of the Garrison when they first met and then, when they reunited and begun to be on better terms, he left Voltron to go with The Blades of Marmora, only to come back and have them split up again to go to their own families– yet still, now that he had finally been honest and confronted his true feelings, it felt even harder to be afar from him. They texted every day, so at least they kept in contact, but it wasn't the same as face-to-face and Keith was also such a bad texter, it took him hours to answer and sometimes he even forgot to do so. Lance wasn't mad though, he understood that he could be busy or that maybe he just wasn't very fond of texting, but it kind of sucked when that was their only source of communication.

He paused the video game he was playing –since they returned to Earth he had found himself falling back into the habit of playing video games, it had been so long since he had had time to relax and play games, plus having more variety than just that old video game Pidge and him had bought at the space mall and played to the point of now almost being able of playing it with their eyes closed, he was now hocked up to his console– to cheek his phone. He had a new text from Keith. He smiled, like the whipped boyfriend he was, and opened the message.

' _keith: go to ur front door_ '

Lance grinned wide, dropping his console on the floor and rushing to the door, not even bothering in putting on some shoes and just going on his socks downstairs, so happy to have his boyfriend there. His mom said something about not running around the house when he saw him run to the door, but he ignored her, too excited to finally open to door. Yet when he opened it... there was no one there. His smile dropped and he was ready to fight Keith for making him run to the door like an idiot, expecting to see his boyfriend at he door like all of those cliché scenes, when his mother, who was peeping from the kitchen door frame, wanting to know what had his son so excited, pointed out the little post-it stuck on the outside of the front door. Lance picked it up and read it.

"What does it say?" His mother asked, getting more intrigued by the whole situation.

"' _meet me in the pizzeria in front of the beach at 8_ '." Lance read out loud, omitting the part where Keith had signed as 'ur cool samurai', letting out a soft laugh at that last part.

That was, in fact his favorite pizzeria of all town, and he smiled at the fact that Keith _remembered_.

Back in the days when they were in the Castle of Lions -when this still existed and hadn't turned into space dust-, Lance liked to sit on the floor of the bridge of the Castle, right in front of the big windows that allowed you to look at the space, when his thoughts got too loud and wouldn't let him sleep, and when Keith couldn't sleep either, he sometimes joined him. They would spend nights staring at the outer space, with a sky full of stars and constellations they had never seen before, too far from home to know them, and learn to memorize them, trace constellations laying next to each other, assigning them names. Lance liked to think the constellations he named had the best names. Keith was good at forming constellations and Lance was good at naming them.

On one of those nights, when Lance missed home too much, Keith sat next to him and he listened to Lance go on and on about his family and Varadero. With tears leaving thin lines on his night facemask, Lance told him about his favorite places back in his hometown and all the good memories he had with his family. A bittersweet feeling of both nostalgia and love for the good old times that had Lance both laughing and crying.

"That pizzeria is so good, man, they do the best pizza I've ever eaten in my entire existence and-" Lance had said, before being interrupted by Keith's skeptical laugh, as if he was over-exaggerating about how delicious those pizzas were. "They do have the best pizza ever, Keith, and when we get back to Earth I'll drag your skeptical emo ass there and you'll have to admit defeat."

At that, he remembered Keith rising his hands in defeat, still laughing. And it was moments like those, when they weren't bickering and arguing, when they actually got on well and enjoyed each other's presence, that it was harder to deny that Lance liked Keith, maybe even loved him. It felt right, it felt as if they understood how the other worked perfectly. They complemented each other. They were a good team.

"But not only that, it's also located right in front of the beach, so you can eat that delicious pizza while seeing the sea." He kept on listing why that was the best pizzeria. "Oh, and don't worry about deserts, 'cause right next to the pizzeria there's this _heladeria_ where I know the owner and he's super nice and..."

"So someone's got a date." His mom wiggled her eyebrows in a really McClain way and Lance laughed, brushing her off and going upstairs to begin getting ready, it didn't matter it was only five-something, he needed to pick a good outfit that would leave his boyfriend gayer than he already was.

Since what happened with Keith, he came out as bisexual to his family, deciding it was time to stop hiding and suppressing the fact of also being attracted to men, as well as women. His mom and siblings had been fully supportive of it, even if it took some explaining since they didn't quite understand what it was bisexuality, and his dad, although more reluctant to the idea of Lance being bi, he slowly learnt to accept it as well. What would surely be harder would be to come out to his abuela, since she was older and had more old-fashioned thoughts. However, he didn't want to worry about that now, he'd deal with that when the time came, as for now, he was happy he was being accepted for who he was at home.

By seven thirty he was ready. Skincare done, those black tight jeans that hugged his ass perfectly, that soft blue sweater that made his eyes stand out and his usual shoes. He also spend some extra minutes on his hair, making sure it looked good, and making some silly poses in front of the mirror, just because.

He went downstairs, ready to go, finding his mom and his sister Veronica siting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee and talking. It was something they usually did, they had a pretty close mom-daughter bound, so sometimes they just sat and told each other about their day, telling each other fun stuff that happened at work and asking each other for advice whenever something was bothering them. Lance always thought it was something beautiful, how they trusted each other so much. He wasn't so much like that, his insecurities and fears often made him keep things to himself, which made it hard for him to open up and talk about it, even if it was his own family who he knew would support him and love him no matter what.

"Heading out, lover boy?" Veronica teased him, making him blush -specially because Keith also liked to tease him calling him that.

Their mom laughed, and playfully smaked Veronica's arm, enjoying the teasing just as much as Veronica did. That was how his family worked, they all liked to tease everyone but, despite all, they loved each other.

"Have fun, _mijo_." His mom send him off.

He got out of the house, ready for the thirty-minute walk to the beach. It was in moments like these, when he wished he'd gotten his driving license, or that he at least could drive one of those hoverbikes Keith and Shiro used to drive back at the Garrison. Then again, he had been too busy trying to keep up with school, with the fear and pressure of having to fill in the position Keith left when he dropped out, and afterwards, it's not like he had much time for driving lessons back in space. Maybe he could get Shiro or Keith to teach him how to drive a hoverbike, that'd be cool.

When he finally got to the promenade, where the pizzeria was located, he was surprised to find not only Keith but also the rest of Team Voltron, waving at him from the distance. He rushed to them, he couldn't believe they were all there, in freaking Cuba, just to see him.

"What- What are you guys doing here?" He asked, as soon as he got to where the others were, surprised.

As a response, he got both laughs and endearing looks.

"Wow, Keith was right, we really did surprise him." Hunk stated, with a playful laugh.

Yet, even though they all laughed, they also seemed... sad? It almost felt as if they were sorry for him, for some reason. He looked at Keith, who looked kind of pissed off, but that could just be Keith being Keith. At the end, he decided to simply brush it off. None of it mattered, just for now, he just wanted to enjoy the night and have fun with his friends after they made the effort to come from that far, from their houses, just for him. For a night, he just wanted to push away the feeling of not being good enough, the feeling of being the 7th wheel of Team Voltron, he just wanted to forget it all... and have fun.

Shiro, who he now noticed was standing next to Professor Adam, stepped closer to him then.

"Oh, Lance, hope you didn't mind that I invited Adam too." Shiro said, squeezing the boy's hand in his. Before Lance could further question what was happening, Shiro spoke again. "He's... my boyfriend."

They all looked at them surprised at the news, except Keith, but that didn't surprise anyone, Shiro and Keith were so close he probably already know the whole story.

"You had a boyfriend and you didn't tell us!?" Lance exclaimed, kind of offended, then again, Shiro wasn't one to really open up and talk about his personal life. That, and the fact that they've pretty much been living with a fake Shiro for so long while in space.

"Wow, babe, I'm kind of offended too." Adam said then, making everyone laugh.

"So, Lance, time for me to try that awesome pizzeria you promised you'd drag my pretty ass to." Keith said, wrapping one of his arms around Lance's shoulders, smirking.

"Okay, I clearly remember saying 'emo ass' not 'pretty ass', although I gotta admit that ass looks fine as hell." Lance said, not missing a chance to flirt with his now boyfriend, making him blush.

The rest of his friends, made fake-disgusted faces and threw in some comments about it, jokingly messing with them.

"Well, took them long enough." Shiro said, crossing his arms over his chest as he always did, smiling like a proud dad would do while looking at his sons.

"If you ask me, I thought they'd never actually move past their fake-rivalry." Pidge commented, giving Hunk a 20$ bill.

"You guys bet on this!?" Lance asked his two best friends, incredulous, watching the exchange of money going on while Shiro and Allura shock their heads disapprovingly. Coran and Romelle just laughed at it.

Hunk and Pidge sheepishly smiled at him, acting like they didn't know what Lance was talking about.

"In my defense, I'll say I bet in your favor, I knew you could do it... with time." Hunk said.

Lance was just glad his best friend didn't add any other comment, that he didn't tell everyone _and_ Keith that he had been pinning for him for _years_ , being incredibly obvious to everyone _but_ him that he had a big fat gay crush on the guy. Looking back at it now, it was clear that he just mistook his attraction for Keith as competitiveness and admiration; he created this whole cartoon-like rivalry because he was too dense and too influenced by the hetero-normative to realize he liked him.

"Well, whatever, now that all your bets are done, I'd like to show my boyfriend how awesome that pizza really is." Lance said, grabbing Keith's hand and softly smiling at him.

 

~*~

  
Being in a Cuban pizzeria meant Lance was officially the translator of the group. The altean trio -Allura, Coran and Romelle- could only understand English and were still amazed to know there were many other languages in this planet aside from English when, back in Altea, people only spoke altean. As for the rest of humans -or half-human, in the case of Keith- Shiro knew a bit of Spanish given that he took some classes, Hunk understood some random words because of so many years living with Lance and over-hearing phone conversations with his family, and Pidge, Adam and Keith just kind of forgot pretty much everything they learnt about Spanish in school.

" _Bienvenidos, ¿ya saben lo que desean ordenar?_ " Said one of the waitresses of the local, with a big kind smile.

Lance remembered her, she had been working there for years and, since Lance was pretty much a regular, they knew each other. He had even tried to flirt with her once or twice -in vain, because she already had a boyfriend. However, that didn't stop them to hanging out as friends sometimes. 

" _¡Lance!_ " She exclaimed when she spotted him sitting at the table. " _¡Oh, dios, hacía siglos que no te veía! ¡Vi las noticias de que habías desaparecido, tu familia estaba tan preocupada!_ "

Lance smiled at her and got up to hug her, while the rest of his friends just stood there with confusion written all over their faces.

She had such a pretty smile, Keith thought, all of her was pretty, in fact. She was curvy, with a sun-kissed skin, almost as beautiful as Lance's. Her hair was dark, tied up in a messy bun that was held by a pencil -Keith never understood how girls were able to tie their hair with a pencil, it had never worked for him and his mullet. Her eyes were a light brown, contrasting with his hair, and, at the moment she saw Lance, they seemed to light up, to show so much life in them. Keith was pretty sure that, had he not been as gay as he was, he would have been attracted to her, and he wondered if Lance had ever liked her, if he had dated her. He knew it didn't matter, Lance and him were together now and he trusted him, but a part of him couldn't help but get jealous. And which made it worse was the fact that he couldn't understand what they were talking about.

"Pidge, put on the subtitles." Hunk joked and the rest of them laughed while Pidge pretended to do as she was told.

" _Ya... Las cosas se complicaron, no te creerías por todo lo que pasé._ " Lance answered the girl, laughing it off.

Lance sat back on the table, next to Keith, who seemed kind of pissed off.   
  
"So, you guys know what you want to order already?" Lance asked his friends.

Everyone told him the food and drinks they wanted so that Lance could order, with some occasional questions about things about the pizzas they couldn't understand, and Lance told the waitress, who wrote it all down.

" _De acuerdo, pues ahora les traígo las bebidas._ " She said, smiling.

She quickly picked up the menus from everyone and smiled again, looking at Lance. " _Me alegra mucho verte de nuevo, Lance._ "   
  
" _A mí también, Vanesa._ " He smiled at her softly.

And then she was off to get them their orders.

As soon as Vanesa was gone, everyone laughed, Lance looked at them to see what was so funny and saw all of his friends looking at a pissed off looking Keith, now also flustered because of the laughing. It took a bit for Lance to understand what was happening, but when he finally put the puzzle pieces together, he turned to look at his boyfriend with a smirk.

"Calm down, Mullet, she's just a friend, I told you I used to come here all the time." He reassured him, teasingly.

He never really thought Keith would be the type to get jealous, he thought that, if anyone was to get jealous in this relationship, it would be him. Turns out he wasn't the only one to get a bit jealous sometimes.

He saw Keith kind of pout in the most adorable way Lance had ever seen, still flustered and with that grumpy face of his, and Lance grabbed his face, laughing, and left a quick peak, making his face even redder.

"PDA! PDA!" Pidge and Hunk screamed, teasing them.

"Oh, shut up, let me kiss my pretty boyfriend." Lance answered, and that was enough to make Keith reach a new shade of red.

Vanesa came again with their drinks, leaving them in the table and announcing the pizzas would be ready soon.

"You really surprised me, though, I honestly thought this was gonna be a date with my cool samurai." Keith, once again blushed like crazy at the nickname, while the others laughed.

Once again, Lance saw the sad expressions on everyone's faces, this time, he was sure he wasn't imagining things. It made him feel anxious, maybe he had done or said the wrong thing. He wondered if he had maybe thought this was a cool reunion to hang out and have fun in Varadero all together but really, it was a good-bye party to tell Lance he was out of the team, that's why they looked sad, they probably pitied him. Yet, Keith liked him, would he kick him out of the team? He had insisted that he was just being silly when he told him he thought he wasn't needed on Team Voltron. But, perhaps, even if it hurt him, he'd put the mission above all, as always, even if it meant putting the mission above the guy he liked.

"About that..." Hunk was the one to break the silence, still with the same sad expression everyone portrayed. Lance swallowed, waiting for the next words, as if he was an employee standing in the his boss' office knowing fully well he was going to get fired.

"Lance, we're really sorry." Allura continued.

He frowned in confusion, why were they apologizing?

"Yeah, dude, we're sorry we've been treating you so bad and neglecting you these past months." Pidge finally said.

Lance stood there, without knowing what to say, he never expected them to come -to freaking make the effort to come all the way to Cuba for him- and apologize. He had truly felt like it was all his fault, like they had every reason to threat him like that, because he wasn't enough and the team needed something better than him, and now they were saying they were sorry and Lance just didn't know what to say. Before he could truly register it was happening, he was crying.

"Baby, don't cry." Keith said, the moment he saw him whipping his tears with the sleeve of his blue sweater.

Keith hugged Lance, letting his face rest on his chest while he cried, and sent a death glare to the rest of Team Voltron. He had asked them all to come there because he couldn't stand to see Lance so down, to see him constantly blaming himself for something he wasn't guilty of, he hadn't done nothing wrong, he  _was_ good enough, he was so amazing, and for the little he had heard about how they'd done while he was gone with the Blades and his mom, he could see that they had all done Lance so dirty. Lance could act all goofy and confident, act like he was The Sharp Shooter, the Lover Boy, he could pretend he was the best at everything, but Keith knew better. Keith knew he got lonely and insecure quite easily. He left for Lance, yet he still managed to hurt him by doing so. But he was determined to fix it.

Allura got up, squeezing herself in the little space there was left in the booth sofa where Lance was siting next to some of the others, and rubbed his back like a mother would do.

"Lance, don't cry, honey." She soothed. "We're so sorry, we're sorry we made you feel this bad."

Lance sniffed and separated from Keith to look at Allura and the others, instantly missing Keith's warmth.

He shock his head. "It's okay."

"No, it's not, Lance." Hunk said, out of all of them, he seemed to be the one who looked sadder. "I'm your best friend, we've been together for years, and I've been treating you so bad. I can't believe Keith had to come and tell us off for it for us, _for me_ , to realize how shitty of a friend I've been to you."

Lance felt another tear roll down his cheek and whipped it off. Hunk opened his arms, inviting Lance to hug him, and Lance didn't waste to seconds to stand up and go hug his best friend.

"I'm sorry, buddy."

"It's okay, I forgive you all."

" _Siento interrumpir este momento tan emotivo, pero tengo sus pizzas._ " They heard the waitress, Vanesa, say, standing there with various pizzas.

They all got back to his seats, Lance whipping away his last tears, and helped Vanesa put the pizzas on the table.

" _Sigues siendo todo un bebé llorón._ " Vanesa mocked him, pinching one of his cheeks.  
  
Lance laughed. "Fuck off, Vanesa. _Y deja de decir que lloré cuando me rechazaste, sabes que no es cierto._ "   
  
Vanesa shrugged, still with a teasing smile plastered on her face.

" _Lo que tú digas, Romeo._ " She paused, stealing a quick glance at Keith. " _Pero me alegra que hayas encontrado a alguien que te haga feliz. Se nota que le quieres._ "

Lance blushed at that while Keith, next to Lance, observed their interaction in silence, once again, not catching anything she had just said.

" _Sí, lo quiero demasiado, es alguien genial._ " Lance said, with a stupid smile on his lips.

Vanesa smiled at him once again and left, leaving them to their pizzas. Lance then snuggled closer to Keith, still with that same smile and left a kiss on Keith's cheek.

"Thank you, Keith." He whispered, being really so grateful for everything Keith had done for him, to make him happy.

Keith just looked at Lance's deep blue eyes -which almost seemed bluer now, as if crying had that effect on them, as if the tears were able to take away the sadness that was overshadowing them-, moving to his reddened cheeks for whipping his face so much with the sleeve of his sweater, and maybe _something else_  and his pink lips. He wanted to kiss Lance, to tell him he was there for him, and that he always would be, he wanted to protect him and make sure he was okay.

"And now, time for you to fucking  _die_ at how delicious these pizzas are!" Lance said then, before Keith had the chance to say or do anything, excitedly, going back to his happy-go-lucky self. And Keith was so glad to see the Lance he loved so much back. 

 

~*~

  
"I gotta admit, that pizza was indeed awesome." Keith told Lance, who smiled proudly and satisfied of having impressed his boyfriend.

They were now walking hand in hand towards the beach, having already grabbed ice creams at the _heladeria_ Lance loved so much, to have a little beach party. The rest of their friends were walking a little ahead of them, Shiro and Adam carrying bags with drinks they had bought for the party.

"When have I ever lied to you?" Lance answered, making Keith giggle.

"You're right." Keith answered with a smile, and Lance squeezed his hand, smiling back.

"Now come on, there's still so much fun ahead." Lance said, finishing off his ice cream and pulling at Keith towards the beach, following the others. "Man, I should've brought my swimming suit."

Keith laughed. "You can always go in your underwear."

"Wow, Keith, I didn't know you wanted to see me naked that badly."

"I already saw you when we were at the pool of the Castle of Lions, dumb-ass."

"Your dumb-ass." Lance answered, in a really cliché way that made Keith wrinkle his nose with fake disgust, and Lance just laughed and kissed him.

Keith put his arms around Lance's neck and melted into the kiss, pulling Lance closer, he had been dying to kiss that dumb-ass all night. Unfortunately, though, it didn't last long until the others interrupted them with their teasing and hurrying them to come already.

They all sat on the sand floor of the beach, forming a circle, and Shiro and Adam pulled out of the bags the drinks. 

"Are you guys sure we can drink alcohol?" Asked Pidge, raising an eyebrow, her face clearly expressing that she wasn't sure that was a good idea.

"Well, in Cuba it's legal to drink at eighteen." Lance stated, matter-of-factly.

"I'm sixteen." Pidge retorted. 

"To be honest, I started drinking at fifteen, so no one's gonna judge you, _Pigeon_."   

Pidge pinched her nose and shock her head no. "Why doesn't it surprise me coming from you?"

They all laughed, agreeing. Lance could be kind of reckless sometimes, and he didn't really worry about consequences as much as he worried about having fun. 

"Whatever, if you don't drink at least we'll have a designated driver." Pidge opened her mouth again, to contradict Lance, so he spoke again, already guessing what she was gonna say. "And before you say you can't drive either, let me just tell you you pilot the Green Lion." 

Pidge chuckled. "Alright, alright." 

At the end, however, even if Pidge had pretty much said she wasn't drinking, she ended up having her own plastic cup full of vodka and cola, just as everyone else. A day is a day, she had said.   

"Oh, my god, are you serious?" Pidge complained, stammering a bit, the alcohol starting to get to her. "Are you really suggesting playing truth or dare? What are we, twelve?"

"Come on," Hunk insisted, stretching on the 'o', clearly drunk. "it's what people play when drunk at parties."

PIdge just rolled her eyes and gave another sip of her drink, "Well, if we do play, my first dare is gonna be to get all these lovebirds to stop being all over each other, christ, this looks like a gay club." 

 

"I mean almost everyone in this group is gay?" Shiro said, after kissing Adam.

"Unless you and Coran are gay, you pretty much are the only heterosexuals here." Keith added.

Keith was sitting between Lance's legs, resting his body against him, and fairly drunk already. As he had stated, Lance had been drinking pretty much since he was fifteen, so he handled alcohol pretty well. Keith, however, hadn't drank that many times in his life, so, by now, he was kind of out of it already.   
  
"Lanceee," He slurred, and Lance turned to look at him. "how did I get so lucky to date you? You're so fucking beautiful, oh, my god."

Lance blushed like crazy. Usually, he was the one to do all the flirting, so when it came to him being at the other end and actually receiving the flirting, he was just so shy. Who would've thought that a drunk Keith would like to shamelessly flirt?

Keith giggled and pinched one of his burning cheeks, as if appreciating his blush. "So cute."

"Okay, if it stops Keith from flirting with Lance, I'm all up for that game." Lance heard Pidge again. He had been so focused on Keith, he had completely zoned out of the group conversation, getting so engulfed in Keith and how cute he was being.

Lance stuck out his tongue to the girl. "You're just jealous, but fine, let's play."

The game had been fun enough, with a few dares and few unexpected truths. Some ended up in Adam murdering Shiro with his gaze, when finding out all that had been going on in space, like how he had died various times and he acted as if it was nothing, just a regular day in the life of Takashi Shirogane. Or some funny anecdotes that ended up being told after Allura chose 'truth' too many times. There were also fun dares such as Hunk having to go ask for a specific ice cream -they all decided the different flavors the ice cream should have and the extra toppings, obviously not having any mercy on the poor guy- all in Spanish by himself, with no help from Lance, and it was definitely funny to see him struggle with the few Spanish words he remembered hearing from Lance and the confused look on the face of the seller of the ice cream shop. And then it reached Lance again. 

"Truth or dare, Lance?" Allura asked him.

"Dare." He answered, confident. At this point, all the good dares were gone, they couldn't really do anything that bad. 

Allura seemed to think about it yet, at the end, it was Shiro who spoke. "I dare you to throw Keith in the water."

They all looked at Keith, who was almost asleep on top of Lance, having skipped a few rounds already because of that. Surely, if Lance did that dare, his boyfriend could get seriously mad. 

"Takashi, you're seriously evil, you know how mad he would get." Adam said. "You sure you're still not an evil clone?"

Shiro and Adam knew Keith too well, they used to spend so much time together, it was almost as if they had adopted him; which meant they had enough time to figure out exactly all of the things that bothered him. 

"Why do we have to get him into this? It was my dare." Lance complained, pouting, watching his boyfriend peacefully resting on his chest, moving a few strands of his dark hair off his face. 

"Aaw." Allura and Romelle cooed, as if endeared by the scene in front of them even though Romelle was also laying on top of Allura, with Allura's arms wrapping her girlfriend's body. 

It seemed like alteans couldn't handle human alcohol that well, because the three aliens were _so_ drunk at this point. Maybe that's why Keith was that drunk too, because he was half-alien. 

"I mean, I get what Takashi is suggesting, is bad for you because he'd probably get so mad, but I also see your point." Adam explained. 

"Okay, if you don't wanna do that, you can always go order another ice cream wearing only your underwear." Hunk suggested. 

Lance glared at him, if they bothered that poor man again he would for sure call the police at this point, even more if he went there half naked. 

"You're just bitter because we made you order in Spanish all alone." 

"Take it or leave it." Romelle said, as if supporting Hunk's idea; these two spent too much time together. 

He looked at the rest, who seemed to also agree on that last offer, and back at Keith. He sighed.

"I'm sorry, buddy." 

He got up, picking up Keith bride style while the other's cheered and laughed, running to the shore at the same time as Keith started to wake up, looking around and at Lance with a confused expression, not grasping at what was going on. And then, Lance stopped, with the cold water almost to his knees, enough to be able to drop Keith in it. 

"Sorry, baby." 

"Wh-."

Keith couldn't even finish asking, that he was dropped inside the cold sea water. Lance saw the panicked expression on his face when being dropped and the little scream that last 'what' had turned to. He resurfaced, with a really angry expression, and if looks could kill, then maybe Lance would have died at least ten times by now.

"Oh, honey, you're so dead." 

Keith reached for him and pushed him to the water and Lance, not expecting that, fell backwards, into the cold water. At the end, what they had all expected would result in a very angry Keith, turned into a playful fight between the two of them. Splashing and trying to sink the other into the water. Laughing as if they were five again. It felt so natural for them to play like this, it was in her usual dynamics, it was a Lance and Keith thing. And it was always so fun, even when they pretending being mad at each other.  

They paused, breathless, with their clothes soaked and their hair all wet. 

"Okay, okay, I give up, Kogane." Lance said, trying to catch his breath from all the playful fighting, his hands up in defeat. 

Keith, still sort of drunk, looked at his boyfriend. His hair wet, pulled backwards and exposing his forehead, his clothes stuck to his body, defining all of his muscles, religiously formed by all the battles they had fought and his lips slightly purplish from the cold. He got a little closer to him, mesmerized by his beauty, and rested a hand on one of his cheeks. 

"God, you really are beautiful." He whispered above his lips, watching a blush creep to Lance's cheeks. 

He waited no more and finally kissed him, pushing his body closer against Lance's, hungry to feel him close to him. Lance melted into the kiss, pulling Keith closer, letting his hands rest on his wet hair, slightly tugging at it. He sure loved that guy. He loved messing with him, how easy it was, how natural it came out to be when it was them. He loved Keith. He was just so dumb to not having realized of that sooner. How couldn't he have seen that guy right there was all he ever needed? He would go to the ends of the universe just for him.

They parted away and rested their foreheads together, looking at each other's eyes. Deep blue, like the ocean, against that electrifying lilac that could easily remind Lance of all the beautiful places in space.

"I love you, Keith." He whispered, for the first time.

Keith blushed, with a smile on his lips.

"I love you too, Lance." He whispered back, stroking his cheek once more.

Keith had always felt so alone, like he didn't belong anywhere but now, when he was with Lance, it felt like he had finally found his home. It felt like finally reaching home after years and years of wandering, of uncertainty and fears. He didn't need anything else, just the feeling of belonging he had so long longed for and that Lance gave him, he drowned him in it. And he would protect it all at all costs.   
  
The sun was raising in the horizon, the first beams of light bathing their skin, and god, they loved each other. And that was all they ever needed. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tbh is so sad to write about the varadero lance loves so much when, after watching s7, its pretty much destroyed and will never be what Lance remembers it to be 
> 
> is this me squeezing adam into the story when he doesn't really belong in this particular scene just because i'm not over the fact they killed him and i've made my own personal mission to revive him in every single one of my voltron fanfiction???? yes. yes it is. 
> 
> also thank you so much for all the kudos and the lovely comments you've left on the previous part!!


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